Thorns of Immortality
by Patryk Rebisz

Part II (short excerpts) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2. Dream Rather Than Reality
"Touching God's finger was part of their intentions when embarking on the journey to this distant Planet, now they were to go back - to return Home without even entering the chambers where He resides. They've devoted lives to reach immortality and were rendered obsolete in the process."

"He was an explorer of his fantasy, uninterested in the reality of travel. That detachment from reality was always a necessity for an explorer - without that disengagement one wouldn't begin. Feeling incomplete to just dream, one couldn't simply go. That's why every journey has a destination, a practical goal that, besides fulfilling the technicality of pointing the ship in a specific direction, also gives the journey a purpose."

"The goal is a fact: a prerequisite of reality that exists in the heads and hearts of many that stayed behind. The journey, on the other hand, is more abstract, more personal. One gives into hope to discover something profound at the end of it, risking finding out less than anticipated. The goal is satisfied by its utilitarian role. The journey, on the other hand, unless precisely shaped by facts, is of no interest to anybody other than the self as it's about dreams. For the explorer, the journey's value is in a selfish perception that his experience and his life matters."

"In their greed to see the Planet, they didn't consider that the senses will communicate all there is to say, never bothering waking up the soul."

"He imagined that he would be one of those who keep on staring boldly in the face of death and challenge it to a duel. Today, he realised that death wouldn't care. It would walk away from the confrontation waiting for the spirit inside the fighter, inside him, to diminish so that it could cross the river Styx unmolested."

"He could only hope that some spark still glowed inside and with time a new fire for life will rekindle. He wanted to escape from this void, this emotional vacuum that makes both outcomes equal. He needed to know that to be is more important than not to."